James Atlas, a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, had an excellent article in the Times’ Sunday Review section.
The gist of it is that the ever-widening gap between the haves and the have-nots is reflected in airline travel, just as it is in daily life.
“This stark class division should come as no surprise,” Atlas wrote. “What’s happening in the clouds mirrors what’s happening on the ground. Statusization — to coin a useful term — is ubiquitous, no matter what your altitude.”
Despite the fact that the airlines logged about a billion passenger trips last year, Atlas continued, “We’re all going everywhere and nowhere at the same time.”
Atlas
Atlas quotes from historian Niall Ferguson’s new book, ‘The Great Degeneration,” in which Ferguson noted that the United States once “was famed as a land of opportunity, where a family could leap from ‘rags to riches’ in a generation.”
“Now,” Atlas said, extending the thought, “it can’t even leap from economy to business. You can make some progress in small ways: the gold club members get to board before the silver club members. The passenger who earns a certain number of miles is rewarded with a complimentary drink. But those in the back of the plane can fight all they want over their status. They’re still not getting any more leg room.”
I’m sure Atlas is correct, but in my travels I really haven’t noticed the gap widening as much as he describes. I was on one flight recently — Frontier, to Denver, I think — where the leg room was extremely tight. But on Southwest, which I try to use almost exclusively, it still seems OK. And I don’t see anyone getting preferential treatment once on their planes.
***
Also in The Times’ Sunday Review, our friend Robert Finn, bishop of the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, got a mention from op-ed writer Frank Bruni.
Bruni
Bruni’s main topic was New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who as archbishop of Milwaukee several years ago, got permission from the Vatican to transfer $57 million into a trust for Catholic cemetery maintenance, where it might be better protected “from any legal claim and liability,” in his words. He was trying to shield the funds, of course, from awards in priest sexual-abuse cases.
Bruni wrote:
”…Over the last few decades we’ve watched an organization that claims a special moral authority in the world pursue many of the same legal and public-relations strategies — shuttling around money, looking for loopholes, tarring accusers, massaging the truth — that are employed by organizations devoted to nothing more than the bottom line.
“…In Kansas City, Mo., Rebecca Randles, a lawyer who has represented abuse victims, says that the church floods the courtroom with attorneys who in turn drown her in paperwork. In one case, she recently told me, ‘the motion-to-dismiss pile is higher than my head — I’m 5-foot-4.’
“Also in Kansas City, Bishop Robert Finn still inhabits his post as the head of the diocese despite his conviction last September for failing to report a priest suspected of child sexual abuse to the police. This is how the church is in fact unlike a corporation. It coddles its own at the expense of its image.”
Come on, Bishop Finn, the gig is up: Get outta here!
***
A recent Gallup poll had some interesting statistics regarding what Americans consider their main source of news. Fifty-five percent said TV; 21 percent said the Internet; nine percent said print; six percent said radio; and two percent said word of mouth. The survey was conducted June 20 to 24, and 2,048 adults were surveyed.
Poor print…It just keeps on a fadin’. I could cry a river.
***
In the barber shop yesterday, I was reading the paper while waiting my turn, and a guy in one chair said something like, “Is it my imagination or has the paper gotten narrower?”
The barber and I said, yes, we thought the width of The Star had been shrunk, once again, relatively recently.
To which, the guy in the chair immediately responded:
“First, they cut the news out of the paper, then they cut the comics out of the paper, and now they’re cutting the paper out of the paper!”
It was hyperbole, of course, but wickedly funny…
***
Last, we come to Charlie Wheeler, the former mayor who is getting kicked out of his house west of Loose Park because he is far behind on his mortgage payments to James B. Nutter & Co. A couple of months ago, after the The Star reported on the situation, Jim Nutter Sr. gave Wheeler a one-month reprieve, with an evacuation deadline of July 1. I’ve been going by Wheeler’s house periodically, and yesterday the front window coverings were open and it looked like the house might be fairly clear on the inside. But a car that I believe belongs to Wheeler’s son Graham was in the driveway, so I was pretty sure that Wheeler, his wife Marjorie and Graham were still living there.
Later in the day, I saw Charlie’s and Marjorie’s daughter, Marian, at Cosentino’s Market in Brookside, and I asked her what the story was. She said her parents had received another extension, this time until Aug. 1.
I swear, it won’t surprise me if Charlie doesn’t leave until the sheriff’s deputies show up with an eviction notice and accompanied by heavy lifters hired by Jim Nutter.
Come on, Charlie, think about your good name…Get outta there!
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
James Atlas is correct to some degree, particularly as it relates to international travel. In first class, you usually have a seat that reclines to flat with built-in heat, massage, audio and video. In economy, your seat is as comfortable and flexible as a 5 gallon bucket.
Can’t believe someone in the new pope’s chain of command is not aware of the Sin of Finn. He’s not going on his own……another deadly sin of pride. He is an embarrassment to the Church.
I feel your print pain but the sooner the Tsar shuts down, the better. Either that, or a complete changing of the guard. It is, for the most part, painful to read.
Charlie isn’t concerned about his name. He is who he is. I doubt that he really cares about what people think of him at this stage in his life.
You might be right about Charlie…I hadn’t thought about it that way. If I was in that situation, I would have flown the coop a long time ago…Charlie’s a great guy; he just maddens most people around him. In his prime, he could go his own way and rely on his popularity to carry the day. Now, he’s dug himself a big hole.
Fitz and The Smartman,
The longer the flight, the more those in the back feel major differences.
Jim, have you thought of moving to Denver for a KC-designed, spiffy airport – kidding. We can play Cherry Hills.
I want a new airport design too. I just cannot get over the Jurassic Park sewer system. I was told of another KC sink-hole on 9th Street Wednesday. The pipes need to be a priority too. I am in for an airport do-over too. We could convince Clay Chastain there will be street cars and ask him to come KC…not…Although it would be entertaining.
Fitz – what were you doing at a barber shop, driving someone…lol.
I understand your point, Fitz, about Mayor Wheeler. It’s sad, but how long is Nutter expected to allow the family to extend their “welcome”? Charlie will be known as a politician that had these troubles, and no offense to the former mayor, but how much does a guy that old worry about his “name”?
Peace Out, Fitz and The Smartman.
Larry — Will you please quit giving Smartman equal billing to “the big dog”?
I’m sick and tired of playing second fiddle to this guy, The Smartman, who thinks he has all answers to all the world’s problems and sits back and opines about every wisp of an issue that flashes by his easy chair…It’s not he who’s staying up til after midnight, honing these posts to perfection! It’s not him who’s poring over two newspapers every day rooting out and calling attention to the looming threats to our civilization! Hell, he doesn’t even believe in “the power of print” any more…He’s abandoned ship!
Damn it, the hell…I want to be No. 1 around here!!!
(Thanks for opening that door, Larry, I feel better now…)
Fitz, at best I am Ed McMahon to your Johnny Carson, Keith to your Mick, Diuguid to your Hemingway……that may be a bit extreme……but I remain your humble commenter.
As for the power of “ink,” I would suggest that more people have spent time looking at Aaron Hernandez’ tattoos over the past two weeks than reading a newspaper. The power is still there just on flesh, not pulp.
I appreciate your overly humble response, Smartman…But casting yourself as Diuguid, under any circumstances, is ridiculous. The guy has never turned a phrase, never written a funny line. How he’s made a living at writing is a complete mystery. Now he’s managed to turn the “letters to the editor” section into a boring exercise…Lewis, GET OUTTA HERE! Climb into your VW bus and take a long trip.
(How do you like how I jump from one rant to another?)
Nice segue Fitz. The honest truth, and I’m sure you know it, but are much too dignified to say it, is that Lewis was hired because of his skin color, not his writing skills. For someone who basks in the light of MLK he certainly doesn’t pass the sniff test when it comes to content of character.
People that I know who know him say he’s a nice guy, just a terrible journalist and even worse op-ed writer.
He’s “likeable enough,” as Barack once said to Hillary.
…I’ll tell you a little story about Lewis. When he was still a v.p. with a big office on the third floor, and I was KCK bureau chief, he once badly understated or overstated (can’t remember which), in an op-ed piece, the percentage of Hispanics in Wyandotte County. I sent him an e-mail pointing out the error, and he wrote back that he got the figures from the Census Bureau. Well, I checked the Census Bureau figures, and he was wrong…I went up to his office and, in short, told him that if he didn’t own up and write a correction, I would take it to the next level, which would have been Zieman, who was editor at the time. Grudgingly, he wrote a correction..I never thought much of him before that and a lot less after.
I don’t know any of the principals in the discussion, but I’ve always believed Lewis was hired because of his writing but he has continued to be employed because of his skin color. There really isn’t any other excuse because his writing is below average.
Looking back….would Zieman have cared? Seemed he would have been conentrating on figuring out a way to keep his wife “employed” at the Star instead.
Back when he and I were hired, in the 60s and early 70s, some sub-par writers managed to get jobs at The Star, but most have been flushed out. I made the dreadful mistake of bringing one into the KCK bureau in 1995, and it took me seven years to get the reporter out. When you’re a reporter, you can correct mistakes, in most cases, and move on. When you’re an editor and making personnel decisions, your mistakes are magnified. I’ve always been better operating as a solo practitioner; that’s why blogging is a perfect fit for me.
I would add that The Star needs to dedicate some quality writing on the pros and cons of getting a reverse mortgage. It wouldn’t have helped Charlie (then or now), but it might aid some other poor sap in the future.